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Jonathan Ladouceur (ShiftOS-Next)
Jonathan Ladouceur is a character in ShiftOS-Next. He is a 13-year-old programmer who is first introduced to the player after successfully purchasing all Basic Window Manager upgrades. Biography Little is known about Jonathan. However, he reveals to the player that he is a programmer, and that "his friends call him Jonny." Personality Although Jonathan's character is not well-developed in the game, due to the unfinished development of the game and its story-line, it is assumed based on chat logs later in the game that Jonathan is very persistent and defensive with his actions and not the least bit afraid to argue with and insult someone he disagrees with, especially DevX. Despite this, Jonathan sees himself as "nothing like DevX," since he does not ever force anything onto the player. Gameplay Introduction Jonathan Ladouceur's character introduction sequence starts after the player successfully unlocks every Shiftorium upgrade available for the Basic Window Manager. After unlocking every upgrade, when the clock turns to noon, Jonathan will connect to the player's computer through the Terminal, in much the same way as DevX does. During the character introduction sequence, Jonathan explains that he wrote a desktop environment that he would like the player to test out. However, he explains that he doesn't want to force the player to use it if they don't want to. After explaining this, Jonathan asks the player if they would like to try out the desktop environment. This results in the player being able to respond to Jonathan through chat - the only time this kind of interaction is ever allowed in the game. If the player enters text containing the word "no," the intro sequence is ended and doesn't start again until the next Noon. If the player enters "yes," Jonathan begins the installation of "Memphis Desktop Environment." Memphis Desktop Environment AFter Jonathan's intro sequence finishes, the player is sent into a graphical installer for the Memphis Desktop Environment. This installer allows the player to choose a username and password and a desktop background. After this, the installer shows a series of things you can do with Memphis - similar to the Ubuntu installer - while the software installs. After the installer finishes, the player is prompted to log in. After this, they are thrown into the Memphis Desktop Environment - a user interface similar to GNOME 2 or MATE. Dark Transition After a while of using Memphis, Jonathan connects to the player again - this time using Memphis's Terminal - to alert the player that DevX has discovered Memphis is running on their system. Before Jonathan is able to explain what the problem with that is, DevX is able to intercept the connection and join the chat. Then, an argument between Jonathan Ladouceur and DevX starts - about why ShiftOS is a horrible operating system without a graphical UI and that the player shouldn't be limited to the BWM or the command-line. Later, DevX forcibly disconnects Jonathan and the player, after taking control of the player's system to shut down Memphis and delete it from the hard drive. After this is done, the player's system kernel-panics, reboots, and boots into a new desktop environment based on that in ShiftOS 0.0.8. Trivia * For the first few versions of the game, Jonathan's name was spelled as "Johnnathon Laddeuser." It was changed later because it was a mis-spelling. * The character's name is infamous in the ShiftOS and AstralPhaser communities for being chosen as a reference to a real person who the developer of ShiftOS-Next knew in real life. * Although the character's name is a reference to a real person, that's the only thing the two people share in common. The rest of Jonathan Ladouceur's character is a projection of the ShiftOS-Next developer's character in real life at the time. Because of this, it stands to reason that Jonathan was added to the game as a result of an unhealthy obsession. * Memphis Desktop Environment is the same user interface used in a previous game by the ShiftOS-Next developer, "SimulationOS." * In ShiftOS 0.1.x, typing "jonathan ladouceur" in the Terminal results in the Terminal closing and an Infobox popping up, saying that the Terminal has performed an illegal operation and must be taken out back and shot. ** This is a reference to the infamy of the ShiftOS-Next character. * Due to a bug in the game, none of Jonathan's gameplay sequences can be triggered without using debug mode and debug commands. * In the final Jonathan Ladouceur story sequence, DevX says to the player "You don't need to worry about Jonathan anymore." Coincidentally, Jonathan is never seen in the rest of the game or any future ShiftOS rewrite. * "Ladouceur" is translatable from French ("La douceur") to "The Sweetness." Ironically, the character portrayed by the game is not exactly sweet.